Geography

Egypt, at the northeast corner of Africa on the
Mediterranean Sea, is bordered on the west by Libya, on the south by the
Sudan, and on the east by the Red Sea and Israel. It is nearly one and
one-half times the size of Texas. Egypt is divided into two unequal,
extremely arid regions by the landscape's dominant feature, the
northward-flowing Nile River. The Nile starts 100 mi (161 km) south of the
Mediterranean and fans out to a sea front of 155 mi between the cities of
Alexandria and Port Said.

Government

Republic.

History

Egyptian history dates back to about 4000
B.C.
, when the kingdoms of upper and lower Egypt,
already highly sophisticated, were united. Egypt's golden age coincided
with the 18th and 19th dynasties (16th to 13th century
B.C.
), during which the empire was established.
Persia conquered Egypt in 525
B.C.
, Alexander
the Great subdued it in 332
B.C.
, and then the
dynasty of the Ptolemies ruled the land until 30
B.C.
, when Cleopatra, last of the line, committed
suicide and Egypt became a Roman, then Byzantine, province. Arab caliphs
ruled Egypt from 641 until 1517, when the Turks took it for their Ottoman
Empire.

Napoléon's armies occupied the country from 1798
to 1801. In 1805, Mohammed Ali, leader of a band of Albanian soldiers,
became pasha of Egypt. After completion of the Suez Canal in 1869, the
French and British took increasing interest in Egypt. British troops
occupied Egypt in 1882, and British resident agents became its actual
administrators, though it remained under nominal Turkish sovereignty. In
1914, this fiction was ended, and Egypt became a protectorate of
Britain.

Egyptian nationalism, led by Zaghlul Pasha and
the Wafd Party, forced Britain to relinquish its claims on the country.
Egypt became an independent sovereign state on Feb. 28, 1922, with Fu'ad I
as its king. In 1936, by an Anglo-Egyptian treaty of alliance, all British
troops and officials were to be withdrawn, except from the Suez Canal
Zone. When World War II started, Egypt remained neutral.